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My wife and I just purchased a new 2017 C-MAX Energi Titanium in white with black leather interior to replace a 2012 Fiat 500C Lounge Convertible. We really love this car and we have been asking ourselves since we purchased it 4 days ago, why hasn't this car been advertised at all. It's like the biggest secret out there.

Our other car is a 2017 Honda CRV EX and there are a few things about it I love better, but there is a lot more I love about the C-MAX over the CRV (which I still love.) We test drive the RAV 4 Hybrid and the Kia Niro and we didn't like the way the Niro drove (especially since the Niro's brakes felt unsafe because they seem to take forever to stop.) We never thought about a plugin hybrid, but with the tax credit of the Energi over the Hybrid, the Energi just made more sense. Plus the dealer had a larger selection of them compared to the Hybrid.

Congrats on your new car! I felt the same way when I bought my 2017 CMAX Energi Titanium on Sept 5th. I had never heard about the car until I browsed Ford's website and found it listed under the hybrid choices. I'm pretty sure that everyone I know is ignorant about the car too. It's almost like someone cast a 'somebody elses problem field' over the car. For whatever reason, Ford hasn't done anything to advertise the car since it was first released domestically. There is massive mania on social media and in the world for tesla and EV cars in general, but any mention of the C-Max goes into a black hole.

I think there are a few reasons for this:

- The biggest proponents of EV cars hate the C-Max because it's gasp, a hybrid. And, gasp, it's plugin but with a tiny battery??? These guys just don't want anyone to know that their are small cars with dual engines and small batteries. It goes entirely against their advertising.....people are supposed to migrate from traditional cars to pure ev cars w/ massive batteries. The C-Max distracts from their goal.

- It's not a tesla, and Ford which makes big gas guzzling trucks is apparently an enemy not to be trusted ....even if they come out with a good energy saving car.

- Most of the people buying EV cars are very well off financially and like tech gadgets quite a bit.....the C-Max is great, but it's relatively cheap and doesn't have as many future tech gadgetry in it. This doesn't give it any news, blog, or social media coverage. Instead, the only ones buying the C-Max are those who care intensely about economics and real world practicalities --- give me the most economical car to own with enough safety features and cargo/passenger room for my family while letting me make the occasional long range car trip. Being sensible is no longer hip.-

- Lastly, those who have been driving hybrids and EV cars for awhile have gotten used to not using the gas engine, and even if it doesn't make the best sense..prefer a pure EV car or a hybrid with at least 50-80 miles EV range so that they never ever have to touch the gas. Fair enough.

- There are some knowledgeable car buyers who are scared away by the lack of good cooling of the cmax battery, or that Ford will be transitioning to a new generation of EV vehicles shortly and don't want to deal with older tech.

For me, I wanted a car that was cheap enough that I could give it to my kids to drive when they go to college if I so choose, yet big and featured enough that it could be used as a family car, and safe and economical enough that I could get the best bang per buck over 15-20 years. I never lease a car -- I held off on hybrid and ev car tech for a decade waiting for them to mature - the c-max with its dual engines seems to be a relatively safe bet.

It is a beautiful car. I don't understand why people hardly know this car. Many people ask me "what kind of a car is this?" Many are shocked to hear "72 mpg since I got it in July". I tell them 30 miles EV range and 600 miles gas range -- and really you could go more if the driving and conditions are right, I had a 37 mile EV trip this summer and a gas range of around 770 miles while driving around the city.

Also not to mention its SO roomy inside, even the back seats, looks small on the outside but inside space is plenty.

Treat the car well and you'll enjoy this one to the max. I'll venture to say its the best and most fun car to drive I've ever owned.

marlowefamily, your summary of why the CMax is relatively unknown is excellent and on point.

The 'small battery' argument against us has an interesting aspect to it ...

If one has a Tesla and the battery loses enough capacity to be an issue, it will cost (currently) $12,000 or more to replace the battery out of warranty. Depends on initial capacity.

I don't know the numbers precisely, but the Bolt, Leaf, etc. batteries surely must cost $7,000 or more to replace out of warranty.

The CMax battery, on the other hand, currently costs somewhere around $3,000 to replace out of warranty.

Let's say a CMax owner lives in a hot climate and decides that the battery degradation after 5 years is annoying enough that they wish to replace the battery at their own cost, as Ford doesn't judge the loss to be a warrantable claim. Let's further assume that a milder version of Moore's Law is operating with Li Ion batteries, and it costs $2,500 at that point, 5 years from today.

To replace the car's battery is actually a reasonable consumer economic decision.

I say it's reasonable because all along the CMax owner was paying something like 80 cents a gallon equivalent for their 'electric fuel,' and when they used gasoline, they got 45 mpg or more out of it. They did not need brake pads replaced. They mainly used their electric motor, which is one of the most robust, maintenance-free devices with moving parts on the planet. Electric motors always have been such. The owner used their ICE under the most favorable, low-stress conditions imaginable, mainly in steady-state highway driving. And so on. Point is, this CMax owner saved farmore than $2,500 over 5 years in vehicle operating costs compared to an ICEmobile, and now can fully justify replacing their battery at will if they so choose, on economic grounds.

With a Tesla S or X, one inevitably faces this decision in 5 to 7 years:

--$12,000 for a new battery,

--or $100,000 plus for a new Tesla,

--or accept the battery capacity loss.

The other brilliance of the 'small battery' is the flexibility it offers. We just took the Auto Train to Florida and drove back. 942 miles in one day. I lit the afterburners and got 35 mpg on I-95. This is nothing to feel guilty about though--it is merely a different part of the 'flight regime' of this car than the EV and high-mpg hybrid driving we do most of the time. This, chaps and lassies, is flexibility!

In even a Tesla, that trip would have, to use the vernacular, sucked. Waiting 40 minutes every 200 miles at some noisy truck stop to get back 80% of one's charge. Ugh! And that's if you keep it under 60 and don't have to use heat. I wonder how far a Tesla goes at 80 mph with the heat on. We merely stopped for gas twice, a few minutes each time.

I despise the status quo of the fossil fuel infrastructure that's causing such damage to our world. I'm engaged by electric driving and blowing up the status quo with new tech like EVs, and am a big fan of Tesla in many ways. It's just that I find no reason to disparage 'small battery' hybrids like ours, but rather, am astonished by their flexibility and the incredible breadth of their 'flight envelope.'

Last thought--have a look at how this long highway trip affected my numbers.

My CMax now has 18,000 miles and change.

My highest lifetime average was north of 150 mpg.

Before this trip, it stood at 142.6 mpg.

After the trip, which included a lot of batting around Florida, it stands at 116.6 mpg.

It will now inch back up as I commute and run around locally without the ICE firing up, except in those rare circumstances where I exceed the EV range.

These are some of the very best tributes and defenses of our oft-overlooked cars. Pete and Marlowe (?) should have been on the marketing team all along! I've also pondered the question of the cloak of invisibility that surrounds the C-Max. Exactly nobody outside the auto industry who I've met since I bought mine in July has heard of the model. The styling borrows from so many other Fords that it establishes no identity of its own. I've looked up the first ads from launch, and they didn't even show the car more than a second or two!

Ten years ago, I drove a New Beetle TDI- another 40+ MPG car, but it had all the charisma that the C-Max lacks. As if I was driving in a one-car parade, I felt like a star. Folks reacted, heads turned and countless forearms were bruised as my "slug bug" passed by. These days, I spot another C-Max on the road at a rate if one or two a day. It's rare enough to be exciting, and I often give a little wave. Nobody waves back. I wonder if they even recognize my car.

Which reminds me of my first car out of college, a 1970 NSU 1000TT. No, you won't recall it. Nobody does. There were fewer than a thousand imported to the States. I'd spot another every year or two. I was delighted to explain the car's many improvements over the Beetle design, but people just didn't get it. They had no mental slot to file away those facts.

Maybe Ford's hookup with Mazda should have continued with the C-Max? Mazda buyers might have welcomed a sporty hatchback hybrid, and they were already primed for that "zoom-zoom" stuff...